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Reviews
Kenny (2006)
The Dunny man cometh
OK, now I expect all you poor unfortunates not born Australian not to get this film, except Poms, Scots and Irish the latter who unfortunately always get the p..s taken out of them and so have an affinity for things of this nature. Basically it is our quirky sense of humour that we inherited from our racial background. Me I am mostly Irish and a good bit of Scotch ( note scotch not Scot) by absorption. Kenny is a dunny man, not your can on the shoulder type of old, but a high tech dunny man. Have you ever wondered what and how all those wonderful conveniences are maintained, you know the portable ones you use when you go to a big outdoors event? Well you are about to find out that you need commitment, a strong stomach and a long arm. Kenny is really how we all should be. He is proud to do a job well, he lives for that. He is also unflappable and anger management is something he will never need. Just sit back and enjoy and for heavens sake let no one try and analyse this film explaining it is indicative of a repressed desire to get out of Irak. It is a film about something we all have to do a very funny film about excreta and remember even the Queen has to go.
They Found a Cave (1962)
Orphan children find a new home In Tasmania
This is a quaint offering from 1962 and is based on what was a somewhat radical story at the time it was written when children were seen and not heard.
Three British orphans travel to Tasmania to be cared for by their aunt who lives on a farm. They make friends with the boy in the care of the couple employed as farm help. Whilst exploring the bush they find a cave and use it as a base as they battle the baddies.
The harmonica background music was a feature of films of the era and quite frankly it becomes thoroughly annoying after about ten minutes. Some of the acting is a bit forced, but it is a little like the Famous Five travel to Australia.
Today's kid's may find it a bit passé, but my children enjoyed it years ago and now in their 30's still find it fun.
Oliver Twist (1948)
See how black and white is really well used
I regard the opening sequence as one of the best ever especially enhanced by the expert cinematography in black and white. The film is a dark tale about the terrible life many endured in England in the era. Dickens wanted to demonstrate this and he did so excellently in this story. I have seen Oliver and the Polanski films, both enjoyable but squeaky clean. One does not get the same sense of evil and grime with colour and the filming used the dark gloom to great effect. Bill Sykes is evil and Robert Newton gives one of his best performances. Guiness as Fagin, long way from Obi Wan and controversial, however very true to the Dickens character. We should not look at it as anti Semitic but as a bad person who happened to be a Jew. He is based on a real character in fact.Nonetheless Guiness is brilliant and really steals the show. The rest of the characters are the usual under rated British character actors and each is excellent. Some went on to bigger things e.g. Newley, Dors and of course the wonderfully funny Hattie Jaques, who ended up with Sykes in the end, well Eric Sykes not Bill.
The Big Blockade (1942)
Quaint propaganda
OK the spoiler first, Germany looses! Now I am sure if John Cleese was around at the time he would have written something like this. 1940 and the Phoney War was over, but Britain still had years of hardship ahead. This is a quaint view of things with the totally useless Hampden bomber flown nonchalantly over Germany with John Mills munching sandwiches whilst ably directing Michael Rennie to the target and actually hitting it. In reality the film contains a fundamental truth, the economic blockade of Germany did have a very real impact on the final outcome. Now it is a classic piece of propaganda that only the British could do. Amusing and of historical interest.
Doctor Who (1963)
After all I am the Doctor
The problem with reviewing Doctor Who is that it has gone for so long. To look at the old episodes is rather amusing as they are clunky ( stage crew manually shutting the Tardis Door for example) and often poorly acted and very stereotypic. But for true devotees who see behind all this recognise the huge value of so many of the older episodes. Each Doctor is different and the actor brought their own character interpretation. Tom Baker was the longest serving , most amusing ( or infuriating) and very good. Yes towards the end he hammed it up but why not, it was fun. Troughton was the galactic Tramp, yet under the timid exterior was the ever sharp mind. It was he who confronted the Time Lords ( The War Games) regarding their non intervention. He won. I sometimes see comment that Colin Baker was miscast as the Doctor. Piffle, he was one of the best and to my mind was THE DOCTOR. Billy Hartnell, the original was an irascible old man who had zero tolerance for fools and those who got in his way of adventure and discovery, except for children. He was so gentle with them and Susan called him grandfather. His sorrow at letting go of Susan is one of the best sequences in the show's history. Colin Baker reminds me very much of Hartnell, he does not tolerate fools gladly. Best of all is the line he uttered following criticism of his erratic behaviour. He basically said get used to it as .."after all I am the Doctor." All I can add is to reiterate Lethbridge-Stewart's comment, "Nice chap, all of them!"
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
Mostly Harmless
Now this film will polarise people as there are those who say it was good and reflects what Douglas Adams was after and people like me who were disappointed. Now that is weird as having just read his biography, I would suggest that even he did not quite know what he wanted. So what is good about the film? Well the effects are brilliant especially the making of earth. Marvin's revenge on the Vogons is brilliant and,the portrayal of the Vogons is also great and reminds me of our own wonderful bureaucracy. I have met people like that. What about the plot? Well the story has been tightened and condensed and has a beginning and an end and a very passé type of ending. One should not expect all the minutia that was present in the books, radio show or TV production and you won't be disappointed as you don't get it! Mores the pity as I think that was one of the crucial elements. No matter how tight the situation was one would get a lengthy excerpt from the book, most of which was useless but it screamed out to you "Don't Panic!" The lack of reference to the guide is a major flaw and without it taking prominence one might easily rename the film "Arthur's big day out." Overall the film takes itself a little too seriously and just does not have the zing I think typified the work of Douglas Adams. The actors played their roles with varying degrees of credibility. Arthur was near to great. I don't think he quite got the whingeing character across, but he was the reluctant hero who at least in the film comes up trumps - bit trite though. Ford, well the Prefect was not perfect, in fact he was woeful. He seemed totally disinterested in the whole thing. Good God he is supposed to be a well traveled young alien researching this zany guide. I suppose from the way he is portrayed here you can understand how his only contribution to the guide was " mostly harmless." Zaphod, well forget him. The two heads were done well but the character came across as dull, boring and of course stupid. But mostly stupid, too stupid for my taste and I wanted to fast forward his inane bits. He was just DULL. Trillion, was OK and the role explored her a bit focusing on a person trying to find herself. A brilliant mind in a pretty good body. Love my mind or love my body? A slightly different portrayal than the previous one, but perhaps a bit deeper. I do think Adams would have approved. Lastly Marvin. Well what can I say, it is so depressing , brain the size of a planet and can't act. It was good to see a cameo role by you know who, pity he was too expensive to reprise the role fully as that was excruciatingly depressing. So Marvin, fair, but could have had us all reaching for razor blades to slash our wrists. Oh the narrator, spot on for the very small part he played in this production. So long and thanks for all the fish. Flipper.